User Reviews

Reviews by Stinkypuss:

Pours a dark brown, with good clarity. Off white head forms and leaves behind a lot. Firmly bitter and roasted. Aromatic, perfuming. Pine and citrus . Strong bitterness. Tastes more like an IPA than a base of porter or stout, it's like it's own thing. A good beer still, I'd have this again.

More User Reviews:

Pours a muddy copper-brownish color with an off-white head that leaves decent lacing. Very light for the style.

Smells of a combination of pale and caramel malts with just a hint of chocolate malts. Also present are slight citrus hops and heavier amounts of herbal hops.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though a bit more developed. A combination of pale and chocolate malt flavors up front are joined by light citrus hops. Midway through the flavor profile dries out with the addition of earthy and slightly leafy hops that carry through to a moderately bitter ending. Mouthfeel is OK, the thickness is a bit on the thin side with decent carbonation.

Overall this was more of a combination of an amber and a hoppy brown than a CDA. To be fair these are basically test batches but I’m surprised with Hop Wallop and Storm King in their repertoire Victory couldn’t come up with a better effort.

On tap @ the Victory Brewing Company (Downingtown, PA) on 3/20/11. Served in an imperial pint glass. This is a Black IPA brewed for the 2011 Craft Brewers Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Pours a deep clear ruby (seems pretty light for the style), topped with a finger of rich off-white head (that even gets a little more burnt mocha like when you swirl it). This retains with a creamy ¼ finger that showers the sides of the glass with a robust cascade of frothy spotty lacing. The aroma smells fresh, leafy, and spicy, with some light herbal and earthy qualities going on with it as well. Some bitter tropical fruit mixes with notes of caramel, cocoa, and toasted grains to give the back of the nose a tangy and roasty feel.

The taste is green, spicy, and earthy feeling, with a citric bitterness to it of pithy fruit and rind. This gives way to a backend of roasted grains that are surrounded on the edges by sweet notes of caramel, chocolate, and even a touch of ripe fruitiness. The finish is all spicy bitterness, which sticks to the tongue with some strength. The mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a firm prickly creaminess that expands out onto the palate but is interwoven with some underlying oily slickness that keeps this relatively smooth. Alcohol is nicely hid here for a 7-8% beer.

This was a strong take from Victory on the whole Black Ale style but I couldn't help but think that maybe the earthy and herbal feel of those German hops here clashed with the that dark IPA base just a little too much at times. At any rate, this was still quite flavorful and drank very nicely for the size. I like the Yakima Glory a bit more but I'd like to see them continue to work with this one, as the use of all German hops here was quite interesting.

Pour is a deep ruby red, somewhat transparent and a bubbly white head. The nose is lightly smoked malt, notes of peppercorn, hints of caramel, clean citric hop in back with a touch of orange rind. The taste is malt forward at first, lightly smoked and some notes of burnt caramel. A touch doughy and nutty transitions to a citric hop, orange rind, and faint bitterness. The medium is medium, creamy on the palate, touch of driness and crisp finish. Leans to the malt but balanced and interesting.

The flavor is nice - a bit sweeter than expected, and not too much hop flavor. Honestly, I think the Headwaters APA was hoppier. The flavor is nice some sweet caramelish malt flavor - just not IPA-like. Would be fine if it wasn't called a Black IPA.